Unreality Check

PHIL TAYLOR

January 18, 2010

Imet Gilbert Arenas in the fall of 2001, early in his rookie season with the Warriors. We were in the team's offices when a staff member told him that a tailor would be by shortly to measure him for a suit. Arenas immediately began shaking his head: no way. He was barely playing at the time, and he saw this fitting as the kiss of death. The only reason the Warriors would buy him a suit, he figured, was that they envisioned him sitting in it at the end of the bench, permanently. (In truth, it was just part of Golden State's effort to ease rookies' transition to life on their own.) I remember Arenas grudgingly submitting to the tape measure, like a little boy who would rather be outside playing. "I have to do what the boss says, right?" he said. "Just like anybody else."